Millie Partridge's life has been rough of late, so when her ex colleague Nick invites her to a New Years Eve party on a Hebridean island she doesn't hesitate to book her ticket. As soon as she arrives at the island she realised that not only is Nick not there, but instead another ex colleague, Penny Maybury is there. Mille has been avoiding Penny for the last 12 months, so alarm bells start ringing immediately. When Penny goes missing the next morning Millie and the other guests suddenly realise the New Years Party isn't going to be anything like they expected.

This is another book following in the 'And then there were none' sort of style. A group of people travel to a remote island, and start being murdered one by one. I've read quite a few of these remote location murder mystery type books over recent years, and I think I'm almost hitting my capacity with them. It's a trope that has been done so many times it's difficult for books to bring a new take to it.

For this one specifically, I enjoyed the read but it isn't one that is likely to stay with me. It had all of the classic plot points and twists that you would expect - a creepy setting, an obvious suspect and of course the inability of the victims to leave. I didn't really feel the tension building as I was reading though which is a key feature in these sort of reads for me.

As far as the characters go, Millie was fine. I didn't particularly like or dislike her, just found her to be middle of the road. We know from early on that she's hiding a secret, and although we find out some aspects early on we don't get the full story until the end of the book. The other characters are a bit of a mixed bag, some you like and some are quite irritating, giving you characters to want to be the bad guy.

It's a farily quick read, and if closed room mysteries are your thing then this one will definitely tick all of the boxes. Personally I thought it was OK, but lacking some of the finer details that takes a book like this to the next level.

Thanks to NetGalley and Swift Press for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

What a concept. What a ride. What a cleverly put together and thoughtfully written book.
If you haven’t already preordered for the he synopsis alone, let this be your cue to run to the shops to get a copy!
Flew through the pages and enjoyed every second! Deals with such human issues in such a good way, LOVED!
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Thank you to Netgalley & the publisher for the ARC

I absolutely loved this book. The idea is so interesting of boxes arriving for adults 22 and older to everyone in the world containing a string indicating how long they will live. Do you open the box or not and how do you handle it if you have a short string or a long one? The characters were engaging and the story fascinating. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

The Measure tells the story of an alternate future; where every person in the world over the age of 22 wakes up one morning and receives a strange box with their name on it. Each box contains a string, which shows how long that person's life will be. The Measure follows a number of individuals, with both long and short strings, on their journeys once they know what the future holds in store for them.

This is a really interesting premise and I found it fascinating to read about the different ways that different countries dealt with the strings and the personal impact that it had on people. The book was thought provoking and made for some interesting conversations at home!

I felt that the book tailed off a bit towards the middle, but I was gripped by the ending and am not ashamed to say that I had a little cry!

My thanks to NetGalley and the Publishers for sending me an ARC in return for an honest review.

4+

If a small wooden box arrives on your doorstep inscribed “the measure of your life lies within“ would you open it? This is the scenario here as every adult over the age of 22 is confronted with small brown boxes inside, under a small piece of delicate fabric, is a length of string denoting your lifeline. What does it mean? Where have they come from? Why now – why this moment in time? Are they real and true? This is the dilemma confronting multiple millions and initially a new world order emerges and it’s very far from pretty. The story is told from several points of you which works really well.

First of all, if this sounds too grim for you after all we’ve been through in the last couple of years and the people of Ukraine are going through right now and that’s understandable. However, the book looks at the impact over several years and its ultimate message is actually very positive and hopeful as it forces an examination of your priorities and what is the most important thing to you in spite of the length of your life. In places it is very philosophical and it does make you reflect on yourself and your hopes and dreams. It’s extremely good at looking at the impact on the recipients and we get a whole range of reactions from scepticism to grief, from sadness and impotence to despair and joy.

You feel the tension as boxes are open and the emotions they elicit from defiance to resignation but also embracing the time left and living as happily as possible. The fear is palpable and initially a huge chasm emerges between short and long stringers with all its dangerous implications and I really like how the storytelling goes in waves but settles positively.

There is a bit of everything here there is happiness and sadness, tragedy and sacrifice, it’s poignant and there’s a good message about prejudice and injustice. There are some very likeable characters to pin your hopes on and root for and one you definitely don’t . The ending is emotional but it feels right.

Overall this is a thoughtful and thought-provoking rollercoaster read.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to HarperCollins or the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

How long is a piece of string? Or rather, how long is YOUR piece of string? The concept of this book is that everyone aged 22 and over receives a box, inside of which is a string. The length of the string corresponds to how many years each person has left. There is no explanation as to why this happens or where the boxes are from. People have to decide whether to open their boxes in the first place, whether to live differently according to their string length and if short- and long-stringers should be treated equally. The novel has been described as dystopian but I would describe it as a contemporary ethical drama with a romance element.

Full marks for a great concept which gets you thinking and addresses discrimination in society. The first few chapters were promising. Unfortunately I found everything else about this novel to be disappointing. A third of the way through, I was bored with it. The writing style is not distinctive and not at all gripping. It follows several people who are linked to each other in some way. I felt that the characters should have been in first person perspective to make us care about them more, as the third person narration had a disconnecting effect. I kept on reading in the hope of some revelation, but the plot just unravelled, like a fraying piece of string.

In summary, the ideas are great, the execution not so great.

[Review will be on my blog, 30th June]

The premise of this book was amazing, having people receive a box with the amount of years on their life measured by a piece of string - very very unique so I was instantly intrigued. The idea of having ‘short stringers’ and ‘long stringers’ fascinated me and I feel like it did almost live up to my expectations. Although some of the characters I didn’t find too endearing and some things were a tad unbelievable it was still a cute story in the end!

I was really looking forward to reading this book. I would say it didn't quite live up to my expectations, but it was not a bad book. There was lots going on and it kept me entertained, while not quite hitting the spot. Interesting idea.

The central premise to this novel is simple yet attention-grabbing: across the world, people wake up one morning to find a box on their doorstep with a piece of string inside that indicates the exact number of years they have left to live.

From that is spun a number of interconnected stories of individuals coming to terms with the eternal question "How long is a piece of string?" for each of them.

Some are 'short-stringers' with not long to live; others are 'long-stringers'; or, some choose not to look in their box at all, not know their life expectancy, and live our their lives at the whim of fate or destiny or however they wish to consider it.

As people's attitudes change depending on string length, the novel draws out some rather obvious and somewhat clunky parallels with other forms of discrimination.

The roles of coincidence and happenstance in the narrative are rather too prominent: how disparate characters in urban populations of several million people manage to come into contact with each other, to further the plot, stretches credulity.

While most of the individual life-stories didn't really convince, at the book's heart is a quite a sweet love-story.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When a box arrives to all the adults in the world on the same day everything changes. Within the box is the string which represents your life line. Do you look? What happens if it is short? What happens if it is long? All the good questions are asked and played out in the lives of the characters in this story. Thought provoking

I love the premise of this book and I did keep turning the pages fairly quickly, but - now having been a month or so since I read it - I’ve found that the characters and storyline have faded and the novel overall hasn’t stayed with me either positively or negatively. In summary: excellent premise, ambivalent execution. Many thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.

A thought-provoking read which raises many questions of morality, choice, spirituality, and how we view death. Not an easy read! Interesting premise.

the midnight library, but better! has the flow and tone of piranesi, though less fantastical and sprawling, more human and emotional. it actuallyn reminds me a little bit of arrival, especially its film adaptation

An extremely poignant and sometimes difficult read, particularly in light of the events of the last two years.

This book challenges you to think in new and unexpected ways about life and how we choose to spend the time we have. It was unlike anything I have ever read before in terms of its plot, and I did enjoy the concept of the meaning of life (I’m still undecided as to what I would do about opening my own box in that parallel universe).

While there were many characters introduced at first glance, over the course of the novel I became invested in all of their individual yet cleverly interweaved journeys.
I’d recommend everyone to read this thought provoking book, as I think everyone will take something away from the concept.

*Thanks to HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

I have to admit that I struggled initially with this book and got a third of the way through and stopped reading it, I wasn't sure if it was my type of book-it was rather dystopian which isn't a book type I normally read. However it stayed on my mind so I went back to it and I am so glad that I did. You really got to know the characters and sympathised with their individual plights. In the end I couldn't stop reading and there were times when everything that needed doing had to wait so I could carry on reading. It was beautifully written and captured the imagination. It really raised the question that if you had the chance to know exactly when you would die how you would live your life or if you would even open the box to find out-i don't know if I would want to know. The main message which came through so well was that life is for living,making the most of the time we have while we're here and to spend it doing what you love and with who you love no matter if you're a short or long stringer. I think this book will ultimately stay with me for a long time,I really enjoyed it.

WOW!

I didn’t expect to CRY! And, if a book moves me to tears-it earns all the stars!

Overnight, the boxes arrived. For everyone 22 years and older.

EVERYWHERE. All over the World.

Just six inches wide, and three inches deep-each contained a string which revealed the MEASURE of your life.
Your FATE disclosed by the length of your string.

Spiritual? Supernatural?

Where did the boxes come from and how did they all get delivered at once?

Initially the FEAR united Society.

Eventually FEAR will tear people apart.

SHORT STRINGERS will be discriminated against, pitting them against LONG STRINGERS.

MANDATES will vary from Country to Country, imposing on your freedom of privacy and your freedom of choice.

Yes, you may seem some parallels between the Covid World, we are living in, and the one imagined here, but ultimately THIS story is about the EIGHT main CHARACTERS and the UNEXPECTED ways that their lives will touch one another.

You may think this book would be depressing, but despite the loss of some SHORT STRINGERS, it’s actually quite uplifting and hopeful.

And, definitely UNFORGETTABLE.

I cannot believe it is a debut!

If you enjoy the Dystopian Worlds that John Marrs creates- you will enjoy reading about this one.

Available June 28, 2022!

Thank You to Harper Collins UK for the gifted ARC. It was my pleasure to offer a candid review!

The premise of "The Measure" is intriguing - one day the world woke up and everyone 22 years old that day and older recieved a wooden box with a string inside, the string purporting to indicate the length of time left in your life... Of course not everyone chose to open their boxes, so many remain oblivious to what life has in store for them, but the existance of the strings changes the world as people know it. As time passes a divide is created between the 'long-' and 'short-stringers' so not only do those with short-strings have to contend with knowing their life-span, but also the discrimination that comes with having less of a life left.
The story gives us snippits into the lives of a variety of characters, all from different walks of life, and at different stages in life and there were some we learned quite a lot about, with others fleetingly introduced - which is reflective of the whole long- and short-string aspect. I particularly enjoyed the Ben storyline.

The negativity which stemmed from how people dealt with those with a short-string was so reminiscent of a variety of marginalised groups in society, both past and nowadays, and you can absolutely see the parallels with how society reacts to unusual and stressful situation like this as well.

I enjoyed this book a lot, it made me think about our reality while also being quite an unusual and unexpected tale; there were aspects I wish were fleshed out more but such is the nature of the story!

The Measure has been chosen as a Caboodle Firsts title on Caboodle, the rewards programme from National Book Tokens:

"We're giving 100 Caboodlers the chance to get a copy of Nikki Erlick's hugely compelling novel The Measure before it's out in July. "

This book is spectacularly innovative in its topic, and raises many ethical issues, some of which we have encountered recently in the Covid19 pandemic.
Boxes delivered one night named for their recipients, with a length of string inside, change the face of society, people’s life plans, relationships and governmet policies.
In short, a thought provoking and intriguing read which I fully absorbed and enjoyed immensely. Excellent characters and plot lines, I was invested in their life’s and responses to the dilemma of living with the strings, and the impact of knowing how long they had left to live.

thanks to #NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book ahead of publication in exchange for an honest review
Easily a five star read.

Thank you to the publisher for my eARC copy of this book. Unfortunately I didn’t love this book and therefore didn’t finish, I just didn’t connect with this one. Not for me, sorry.